We awoke to the sound of a lovely Sunday morning rain, perfect time to roll over and sleep in…..wait a minute, this sounds like a line out of Kurt’s book of “why I’m late”, excuses.
The smell of coffee finally pulled us from our cozy bed, so we stumbled downstairs for another hearty breakfast, complete with Brotchen (THE most wonderful breakfast roll).

It would have been a lovely town to spend the morning, but with our short ride yesterday, we were both ready to ride.

Once again, as the church bell tolled 10 am, we rode out of town during a break in the showers.

Actually, the break in showers turned into a beautiful day. In a word, a Magnificent morning ride.

We were not the only ones enjoying a Sunday morning ride.

With the bike path like this, you can’t but help wanting to ride, everyday. At some point during all the beautiful countryside, we unceremoniously crossed the German border, though we cannot tell you exactly where.

A shout goes out to Klaas, whom we met last evening and blew by us today on his 100 kilometer ride (sorry we couldn’t join you).

A side note from yesterday, and probably again during our travels: we are actually traveling UP the River Rhine. Which gives us a certain amount of satisfaction when we pass the river barges as they struggle UP river. So if we again mention, down the river, we have not changed directions (yet) just a mistake!

I was informed today, however, if we don’t do 50 miles a day, we’ll not make it to Istanbul this year. So either we’re not making it to Istanbul, or we’re not making it home this year.

We crossed the longest bridge in Germany (3/4 mile)

into Emmerich am Rhine, the most destroyed (bombed) German city during World War II. The town seems to have recovered beautifully as we biked over brick paved roads and past beautiful old churches on our way out of town down along a dedicated bike path.

After about an hour with the wind at our back and feeling good, we decided to go the more scenic route. So we took a turn into the town of Rees.

Though there was a huge street party, we managed to get out of town unscathed. Probably should have stayed for the party as we somehow strayed way off course. It was satisfying though, that the sport car road rally followed us down our wayward road. As the road turned to dirt, everyone realized a backtrack was necessary.

Back on track, we still had another 15 miles to town. Though the wind had gotten very gusty and the sky threatened rain,

the day was still fabulous.

By 5:00 we made our destination town, Wesel, a quick beer

and a hotel by 6:00. We had talked about having a traditional German dinner and didn’t have to walk far. The first restaurant we came to,

Galland Restaurant was all German food, all German menu, all German waiters and no English spoken, except us. We managed to order the two things we almost recognized and were not disappointed. The restaurant treated us to an after dinner aperitif to put a perfect finish on a perfect meal and day!

Sorry you will not be back this year. I will go to the Brac in Sep to take care of things for you. I will need the credit card for boat gas. Just to keep it running good and keep fish in the fridge. See you in Jan.

What a great start to the trek to Istanbul. Where are the GoPro videos to go with all the pictures of churches? Haha!! Enjoy the great bike trails, good German beer and food as you pedal the days away!

GREAT pictures! Be sure to eat plenty of those rolls while you’re there . . . I decided I’d make some in honor of your trip. No way! Takes all day! Known as a “weekend” roll because they’re so labor intensive! I’ll stick to cookies. Be safe.